People all around the world deserve the right to have a private conversation. Communication privacy is a human right, a civil liberty and one of the centerpieces of a free society. And while we all deserve basic communications privacy, the journalists, NGO workers and human right … | Continue reading
We’ve added one more day to EFF's summer membership drive! Over 900 supporters have answered the call to get the internet right by defending privacy, free speech, and innovation. It’s possible if you’re with us. Will you join EFF?Through Wednesday, anyone can join EFF or renew th … | Continue reading
In an amicus brief filed Friday, EFF and the Internet Archive argued to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Van Buren v. United States shows that the federal computer crime law does not criminalize the common and useful practice of scrap … | Continue reading
Conservatives are being censoredClaiming that “right-wing voices are being censored,” Republican-led legislatures in Florida and Texas have introduced legislation to “end Big Tech censorship.” They say that the dominant tech platforms block legitimate speech without ever articula … | Continue reading
“You can record all you want. I just know it can’t be posted to YouTube,” said an Alameda County sheriff’s deputy to an activist. “I am playing my music so that you can’t post on YouTube.” The tactic didn’t work—the video of his statement can in fact, as of this writing, be viewe … | Continue reading
It’s no longer science fiction or unreasonable paranoia. Now, it needs to be said: No, police must not be arming land-based robots or aerial drones. That’s true whether these mobile devices are remote controlled by a person or autonomously controlled by artificial intelligence, a … | Continue reading
This blog post is part of a series, looking at the public interest internet—the parts of the internet that don’t garner the headlines of Facebook or Google, but quietly provide public goods and useful services without requiring the scale or the business practices of the tech gian … | Continue reading
The Advocate General (AG) of the EU Court of Justice today missed an opportunity to fully protect internet users from censorship by automated filtering, finding that the disastrous Article 17 of the EU Copyright Directive doesn’t run afoul of Europeans’ free expression rights. Th … | Continue reading
On May 12, the UK government published a draft of its Online Safety Bill, which attempts to tackle illegal and otherwise harmful content online by placing a duty of care on online platforms to protect their users from such content. The move came as no surprise: over the past seve … | Continue reading
Clearview AI extracts faceprints from billions of people, without their consent, and uses these faceprints to help police identify suspects. This does grave harm to privacy, free speech, information security, and racial justice. It also violates the Illinois Biometric Information … | Continue reading
The seemingly endless battle against copyright infringement has caused plenty of collateral damage. But now that damages is reaching new levels, as copyright holders target providers of basic internet services. For example, Sony Music has persuaded a German court to order a Swiss … | Continue reading
We at EFF are devastated to learn of the passing of Sherwin Siy. He was a brilliant advocate and strategist who was dedicated to protecting and preserving the internet as a space for creativity, innovation and sharing. He was also a friend and generous mentor who shaped the prese … | Continue reading
Want the latest news on your digital rights? Then you're in luck! Version 33, issue 4 of EFFector, our monthly-ish email newsletter, is out now! Catch up rising issues in online security, privacy, and free expression with EFF by reading our newsletter or listening to the new audi … | Continue reading
Momentum for state privacy bills has been growing over the past couple of years, as lawmakers respond to privacy invasions and constituent demand to address them. As several states end their legislative sessions for the year and lawmakers begin to plan for next year, we urge them … | Continue reading
San Francisco – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is proud to announce its latest grant from Craig Newmark Philanthropies: $300,000 to help protect journalists and fight consumer spyware.“This donation will help us to develop tools and training for both working journalists … | Continue reading
Every July, we celebrate EFF’s birthday and its decades of commitment fighting for privacy, security, and free expression for all tech users. This year’s membership drive focuses on a central idea: analog or digital—what matters is connection. If the internet is a portal to moder … | Continue reading
Nominations are Now Open for the 2021 Barlowsto be Presented at the Pioneer Award Ceremony Update 7/1/21: Nominations are currently open.Here's your chance to nominate your favorite digital rights luminary for a 2021 Barlow! This year’s winners will join an esteemed group of past … | Continue reading
Congress is about to make critical decisions about the future of internet access and speed in the United States. It has a potentially once-in-a-lifetime amount of funding to spend on broadband infrastructure, and at the heart of this debate is the minimum speed requirement for ta … | Continue reading
This blog post was cowritten by EFF intern Lauren Yu.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled last week that Baltimore’s use of aerial surveillance that could track the movements of the entire city violated the Fourth Amendment.The case, Leaders of a Beautiful Strug … | Continue reading
EFF is dedicated to ensuring that technology supports freedom, justice and innovation for all the people of the world. While digital freedom is an LGBTQ+ issue, LGBTQ+ issues are also digital rights issues. For example, LGBTQ+ communities are often those most likely to experience … | Continue reading
People around the world have been horrified at the role that technology companies like Cisco, Yahoo!, and Sandvine have played in helping governments commit gross human rights abuses. That’s why EFF has consistently called out technology companies, and American companies in parti … | Continue reading
A federal court on Thursday night blocked Florida’s effort to force internet platforms to host political candidates and media entities online speech, ruling that the law violated the First Amendment and a key federal law that protects users’ speech. We had expected the court to d … | Continue reading
Nominations are now open for the 2021 Barlows to be presented at EFF's 30th Annual Pioneer Award Ceremony. Established in 1992, the Pioneer Award Ceremony recognizes leaders who are extending freedom and innovation in the realm of technology. In honor of Internet visionary, Grate … | Continue reading
Marking a big win for the privacy and civil liberties of immigrant communities, the Biden Administration recently rescinded a Trump-era proposed rule that would have massively expanded the collection of biometrics from people applying for an immigration benefit. Introduced in Sep … | Continue reading
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) has concluded its six-year investigation into Executive Order 12333, one of the most sprawling and influential authorities that enables the U.S. government’s mass surveillance programs. The result is a bland, short summary o … | Continue reading
After a marathon markup last week, a number of bills targeting Big Tech’s size and power, including the critical ACCESS Act, were passed out of committee and now await a vote by the entire House of Representatives. This week, decisions by a federal court tossing out both the Fede … | Continue reading
A massive number of groups representing interests as diverse as education, agriculture, tech sector, public and private broadband providers, low-income advocacy, workers, and urban and rural community economic development entities came together to ask Congress to be bold in its i … | Continue reading
Today, EFF sent a letter to Ecuador's Human Rights Secretariat about the troubling, slow-motion case against the Swedish computer security expert Ola Bini since his arrest in April 2019, following Julian Assange's ejection from Ecuador's London Embassy. Ola Bini faced 70 days of … | Continue reading
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court late last week barred the courthouse door to thousands of people who were wrongly marked as “potential terrorists” by credit giant TransUnion. The Court’s analysis of their “standing” —whether they were sufficiently injured to file a lawsuit—r … | Continue reading
The State of California recently released what it calls a “Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record.” It is part of that state’s recent easing of public health rules on masking within businesses. California’s new Record is a QR code that contains the same information as is on our paper va … | Continue reading
Warning (Added 2015) Some of the documents that we previously received through FOIA suggested that all major manufacturers of color laser printers entered a secret agreement with governments to ensure that the output of those printers is forensically traceable. Although we still … | Continue reading
Between the increasing capabilities of local and state police, the creep of federal law enforcement into domestic policing, the use of aerial surveillance such as spy planes and drones, and mounting cooperation between private technology companies and the government, it can be ha … | Continue reading
A month ago, Governor Newsom announced a plan to invest $7 billion of federal rescue funds and state surplus dollars to be mostly invested into public broadband infrastructure meant to serve every California with affordable access to infrastructure ready for 21st century demands. … | Continue reading
Security research is vital to protecting the computers upon which we all depend, and protecting the people who have integrated electronic devices into their daily lives. To conduct security research, we need to protect the researchers, and allow them the tools to find and fix vul … | Continue reading
The Patent Office grants thousands of patents a year, including many that would be invalidated if a court considered them. These junk patents should never be issued in the first place, but fortunately there is a way to challenge them at the Patent Office rather than wasting the c … | Continue reading
EFF Legal Intern Haley Amster contributed to this post.Over the past year, the use of online proctoring apps has skyrocketed. But while companies have seen upwards of a 500% increase in their usage, legitimate concerns about their invasiveness, potential bias, and efficacy are al … | Continue reading
Just before the long weekend at the end of May, Amazon announced the release of their Sidewalk mesh network. There are many misconceptions about what it is and what it does, so this article will untangle some of the confusion.It Isn’t Internet SharingMuch of the press about Amazo … | Continue reading
The Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives recently released a comprehensive series of bills designed to curb the excesses of Big Tech. One of them, the Platform Competition and Opportunity Act, addresses one of the biggest, most obvious problems among the large … | Continue reading
We’ve praised the ACCESS Act as “a step towards a more interoperable future.” However, the bill currently before Congress is just a first step, and it’s far from perfect. While we strongly agree with the authors’ intent, some important changes would make sure that the ACCESS Act … | Continue reading
Tech platforms, especially the largest ones, have a problem—there’s a lot of offensive junk online. Many lawmakers on Capitol Hill keep coming back to the same solution—blaming Section 230.What lawmakers don’t notice is that a lot of the people posting that offensive junk get sto … | Continue reading
In March 2016, “smart” doorbell camera maker Ring was a growing company attempting to market its wireless smart security camera when it received an email from an officer in the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Gang and Narcotics Division, who was interested in purchasing a sl … | Continue reading
San Francisco – Nearly two dozen rights groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), have joined together to tell PayPal and its subsidiary Venmo to shape up its policies on account freezes and closures, as its opaque practices are interfering with payment systems … | Continue reading
Tallahassee, Florida—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Protect Democracy urged a federal judge to strike down Florida’s law banning Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms from suspending political candidates’ accounts, saying it unconstitutionally interferes with the F … | Continue reading
San Francisco – On Tuesday, June 15, at 5:30 pm PT, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will testify against the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) at the city’s Sunshine Ordinance Task Force hearing. EFF has registered a complaint against the SFPD for withholding record … | Continue reading
When it comes to online services, there are a few very large companies whose gravitational effects can alter the entire tech universe. Their size, power, and diverse levers of control mean that there is no single solution that will put right that which they’ve thrown out of balan … | Continue reading
The California legislature has been handed what might be their easiest job this year, and they are refusing to do it. Californians far and wide have spent the pandemic either tethered to their high-speed broadband connections (if they’re lucky), or desperately trying to find ways … | Continue reading
In Privacy Without Monopoly: Data Protection and Interoperability, we took a thorough look at the privacy implications of various kinds of interoperability. We examined the potential privacy risks of interoperability mandates, such as those contemplated by 2020’s ACCESS Act (USA) … | Continue reading